Like the Time Magazine Person of the Year, The Trentonianís Person of the Year does not necessarily have to be a person who has done good for the community.

Timeís award went to Joseph Stalin twice, after all. What weíre looking for is the most impactful person, the one person who embodied the year 2012 more than any other in The Trentonianís coverage area.

Our staff voted, and while it was a close race, Trenton Mayor Tony F. Mack was the winner.

Before we even start, Iím going to use the Wayne Gretzky Postulate for the purposes of this analogy. This idea is based on the fact that if you remove all of Gretzkyís goals, heís STILL the all-time leading scorer in hockey history with his assists alone.

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Same thing applies here. If you take away the pending federal charges against Mack, heís still a loathed pariah in the city of Trenton. His mayoral tenure has been fraught with missteps, as Mack has succeeded in ticking off even most of the people who elected him.

The fact that he very well could have been The Trentonianís Person of the Year WITHOUT the federal charges pending makes it a no-brainer that his impact was indelible.

Despite everyone calling for Mackís head, heís standing his ground. Heís likely to get a continuance to delay his trial until August, meaning weíve got plenty of time left in his reign yet.

The citizens tried to recall Mack, and they failed.

The City Council tried to reduce his salary to help drive him out, and they failed.

The barbarians at the gate have called for him to resign, something he has refused to do.

Mack tried to answer his critics by making himself more available to the citizens, but that resulted in him throwing out the press and trying to work around the First Amendment with his one-on-one meetings.

Through it all, while it seemed that the walls were crumbling down, Mack has stayed one step ahead ó something that will likely continue until at least August.

And then, who knows? He is innocent until proven guilty, and maybe heíll get off and run for mayor again.

Runners-up

Mack just edged out Gov. Chris Christie in our Person of the Year poll, and the governor had quite a year himself.

In addition to handling state politics with his usual cowboy bravado, Christie had time to coyly flirt with a run for the presidency ó and later, the vice presidency ó without ever really saying anything directly about it. He was praised for how strongly he led us through the tragedy of Hurricane Sandy, and he was vilified nationally by his own party for practically handing his (political) sworn enemy the election on a silver platter during that same crisis.

Rounding out top five were convicted ex-Mayor of Hamilton John Bencivengo; his cooperating witness Marliese Ljuba, who turned loose details of all kinds of township chicanery in her eight hours of testimony at the trial; and U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, who is the mastermind behind the federal authorities looking to bring corrupt public officials to justice.

Others receiving consideration for Person of the Year were Trenton business administrator Sam Hutchinson, who has kept the city running during tough times; the endless parade of shooting victims in the city; and Dr. Angel Ramos, the superintendent of the Marie Katzenbach School for Deaf, who has dedicated his life to the education of the hearing impaired.

But Mack won the day in 2012. His name was on almost everyoneís lips, and his (mis)management of this capital city has been dissected, questioned and criticized by all of them.

Mackís troubles are far from over, and his critics are still a long way from getting what they want Ė the end of his tenure as mayor.

That might give him a strong head start on Person of the Year 2013. But only time will tell.

ó Matthew Osborne is the editor of The Trentonian. He can be reached at 609-989-7800, ext. 201, or mosborne@trentonian.com. Follow him on Twitter @trentonianozzy.

About the Author

Matthew Osborne is the editor-in-chief of The Trentonian, where he was the sports editor from 2007-2012. He writes a Heisman Trophy column for Digital First Media and is a voter for the award. Reach the author at mosborne@trentonian.com
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